That Was Terrible
by TheChronicler137
Summary: Will gives Percy an idea for a romantic surprise for Annabeth. Quick shot of Percabeth fluffiness. Set during TLO, after they start dating, but before they leave camp.


That Was Terrible

"_Last summer we met_

_ We started as friends_

_ I can't tell you how it all happened_."

Percy perked up as he heard guitar strumming and a guy singing.

Curious, he walked behind the Apollo cabin, where Will Solace and a Demeter girl were seated on rocks, and Will was strumming his guitar and singing. The girl was covering her mouth in disbelief, her eyes bright with joy.

"_Then autumn it came_

_ We were never the same_

_ Those nights everything felt like magic._"

Percy began to smile as an idea took shape in his head.

He waited for Will to finish serenading and subsequently smooching the girl before walking up to him.

"Hey, Will, I need your help with something…"

* * *

Dinner. Annabeth kept staring at the Poseidon table, and this time it wasn't just because her new boyfriend looked so good (as always). He'd been going on about a surprise the whole day, and still, nothing out of the ordinary had happened. But now, he was frantically gobbling up his food like there was no tomorrow.

She continued watching as he finished before anyone else and rushed off to Zeus knew where.

She frowned. What kind of surprise did he have planned? Percy was cute and sweet, but he was also extremely goofy. She suspected that whatever he had in mind was probably going to be pretty kelp-headed.

_What are you up to, Seaweed Brain?_

Still frowning, she turned back to her food, figuring that all would be made clear before the end of the day.

* * *

Chiron gathered everyone at the campfire. There was still no sign of Percy.

Annabeth's frown returned. Where was he? Normally he'd be there to hold her hand, or sometimes hold her, and kiss her during the sing-along. She knew he loved doing it as much as she did. So where was he now?

Will clearing his throat drew her attention, disrupting her train of thought

"Hello, ladies and gentlemen! For tonight's sing-along, we have for you a very special guest!"

Annabeth bit her lip.

_Oh gods._

She realised what Percy's surprise was.

"Half-bloods, I present to you, the one, the only, the Hero of Olympus, PERCY JACKSON!"

A cheer went up, and the crowd buzzed with chatter. Never in their wildest dreams had they ever imagined _Percy Jackson singing_.

Neither had Annabeth. The idea was so foreign, so utterly _absurd_ that it had never once crossed her mind. _Percy _and _singing_ just didn't go together.

But she had to admit, she was curious to hear her boyfriend perform. She wondered if he was about to sing a love song to her. She'd come to expect that sort of cheesy romantic thing from him.

Percy emerged from the shadows, holding a guitar, and giving everyone his trademark troublemaker smile.

Another cheer.

"Hey guys," Percy said, "I'd like to dedicate this song to my amazing girlfriend, Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena!" he pointed straight at her.

Blood rushed to her cheeks as the crowd cheered and Aphrodite's cabin squealed.

"This song's called Hero," Percy said.

He started strumming the guitar, and began to sing.

In a word, it was bad. Percy was off-key almost the whole time, and kept messing up the chords. The entire Apollo cabin cringed whenever he tried to hit a high note, and members of the audience snickered and passed comments around.

_Seriously? The great Percy Jackson…sings like _that_?_

But the moment he started singing, he locked eyes with her, and nothing else mattered. Neither noticed any of their fellow campers' reactions. All Annabeth could focus on were the words, the words that that were now tumbling from his lips, which were penned by some songwriter she didn't know or care about, but which she could tell came straight from his heart.

"_I'm no superman  
I can't take your hand  
And fly you anywhere  
You wanna go, yeah_."

Percy thought back to when he had let Annabeth take Ethan's knife for him. He still couldn't forgive himself for that.

"_I can't read your mind  
Like a billboard sign  
And tell you everything  
You wanna hear but…_"

Annabeth smirked. Percy was sweet and romantic, but a lot of the time, he said the wrong thing. Luckily, this sort of silliness just made him more endearing to her.

"_I'll be your hero_."

Annabeth recalled the first time Percy had held her, the first time she had put her head on his shoulder. He had just rescued her from the sirens. She had felt so broken, so lost, so helpless. And he had been there for her. He'd saved her from the temptations of the sirens. From _herself_.

"_'Cause I, I can be everything you need  
If you're the one for me  
Like gravity, I'll be unstoppable._"

Percy remembered what happened when they were trying to get the Golden Fleece. Polyphemus had gravely injured Annabeth and was beating up Clarisse and Grover. The thought of his friends being in danger (where 'friends' was his internal code word for 'Annabeth') had filled him with such anger that he had been able to single-handedly take down the Cyclops using only a sword.

"_I, yeah I believe in destiny  
I may be an ordinary guy with heart and soul  
But if you're the one for me  
Then I'll be your hero, ohhh  
I'll be your hero-ohhh, yeah._

_I'll be your hero._"

One summer, Percy had snuck out of camp to join a quest he wasn't supposed to be on, made his way across the country, fighting monsters and engaging in other life-threatening activities, all ostensibly to rescue Artemis and save the world. But Aphrodite had found him, and seen right through him. Though he furiously denied it at that time, he was hopelessly in love with Annabeth, and that was his main motivation as he did all that, up till the point where he faced down Luke and Atlas: all of it, just to save Annabeth. It was this love that had filled him with burning desire to see her to safety no matter what, which had kept him going.

"_So incredible  
Some kind of miracle  
And when it's meant to be  
I'll become a hero-oh  
So I'll wait, wait  
Wait, wait for you-ooou, yeah_

Yeah I'll be your hero-ohhh

_Yea-ea-eah._"

Annabeth remembered what happened while they were in Mt St Helen's. They'd been cornered by telkhines, and there was no way out. So what did Percy do? He told her to put on her magic invisibility cap and run away.

Part of her had wanted to punch him for forcing her to leave him. But part of her wanted to kiss him for being so brave and sweet, sacrificing himself to help her escape. And the rest of her was screaming, "_KISS HIM! KISS HIM NOW! THIS COULD BE THE LAST TIME YOU EVER SEE HIM!_"

Yeah, she'd had a not-so-little crush on him since shortly after meeting him.

And so of course that's what she did.

And then she fled, blushing but invisible.

And then Percy blew up Mt St Helen's to help her escape. _He erupted a freaking mountain. _She'd never imagined he could be so incredibly powerful.

"_'Cause I, I can be everything you need  
If you're the one for me  
Like gravity, I'll be unstoppable._"

Percy had told her the story once before. He was being torn apart by the River Styx, when he'd had a vision of her. And it was seeing her than enabled him to survive, to carry on, to fight the River's power, to remain himself. She had always been the most important thing in his life. Ultimately, his very life was all about her. It was his love for her that had kept him together (literally).

"_I, yeah I believe in destiny  
I may be an ordinary guy with heart and soul  
But if you're the one for me  
I'll be your hero_."

Percy's mind flashed back once more to the Battle of Manhattan as he remembered how he'd failed her, how he'd let her get hurt. He had been so angry with Ethan, so angry with Kronos, and so angry with _himself_ that he found strength he never knew he had. He'd let Annabeth get stabbed. He _loved _Annabeth, and _he had let her get hurt_.

He had bashed Ethan's head so hard he dented his helm. Then he had attacked a legion of demigods and the King of the Titans himself. "_No one touches her!_" he remembered himself screaming. He had failed Annabeth. And now it was time to make up for it. To protect her. To save her. To be a hero. _Her_ hero.

"_Yeah_

_Yeah, I'll be your hero-ohhh, yea-eah_

_I'll be your hero_

_Hero._"

Apollo's cabin collectively heaved a sigh of relief as Percy finished singing.

But Percy and Annabeth ignored them, and continued to hold each other's gazes as he walked towards her. The campfire magically parted, letting Percy pass through unscathed. Most likely the doing of Hestia, goddess of the hearth and Percy's friend.

"That was terrible," she said, as he walked up to her, but her smile told him otherwise.

His grin widened.

"Come on, Wise Girl. I know you loved it."

And then she grabbed his shirt, pulling him down slightly so she could meet his lips for a big kiss, right in front of the entire camp.

The whole Aphrodite cabin squealed, and someone muttered something about Silena and Beckendorf.

They parted after a long while, and then she threw her arms around him.

"You may be a cheesy, annoying, idiotic, stupidly heroic Seaweed Brain with no singing talent," she told him, "but you're _my _cheesy, annoying, idiotic, stupidly heroic Seaweed Brain with no singing talent."

"Awwww!" went all of Aphrodite.

"And you _are _the one for me," she said, still hugging him, "My hero."

They stood like that, her arms around him and his arms around her, each simply enjoying the feeling of being with the other. No one dared to interrupt.

"I love you, Wise Girl," Percy finally whispered.

"I love you too, Seaweed Brain."

**A/N Contrary to popular belief, being awesome doesn't necessarily entail having a godly singing voice (take myself, for example).**

** OK, I'll admit this was _sort of _based on the fact that I can't sing and always mess up guitar chords :).**

** Inspired by Drake Hayward's _Wise Girl's Seaweed Brain_. Songs: _I Think About You _by Ross Lynch as Austin Moon in Disney's _Austin and Ally_, and _Hero _by Drew Ryan Scott, vocal double for Sterling Knight as Christopher Wilde in Disney's _Starstruck _(I used the acoustic version from the movie).**

**Also, special thanks to ****Athena's lil' Girl**** for compiling a lovely little list of Percabeth moments, which proved very useful. **


End file.
